Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

August 29, 2018

Excuses Are the Wrong Response to an Attack on Arab Beachgoers

Don’t join the “but brigade.”

Last week, three Israeli Arabs on a beach near Haifa were attacked and severely beaten by a group of Israeli Jews armed with clubs and knives and shouting ethnic slurs; the incident ended when passersby intervened. Police have arrested two suspects thus far. Ben-Dror Yemini cautions against joining what Salman Rushdie termed the “but brigade”—those who immediately follow condemnations of acts of terror with the word “but,” followed by justifications and rationalizations:

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